The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has developed a new webpage on its budget. The webpage provides a range of materials regarding the 2013 agency budget, including information about budget components, agency pay and benefits, budget trends, the overhead transfer rate (used to transfer funds from the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund to defray NCUA supervisory costs) and NCUA’s operating fee for federal credit unions.

This is more information about the agency’s budget in one place than the agency has provided in the past and goes a long way toward addressing concerns about the lack of transparency in the agency’s budget. Another positive step regarding the management of NCUA costs was the agency’s decision in November to decrease the 2013 budget for the Temporary Corporate Credit Unions Stabilization Fund (TCCUSF) by 20%, or $1.56 million from the current $7.7 million.

Of course, the webpage and the reductions in the TCCUSF budget do not address the other major issue about the agency’s resource allocation -- the increases in the budget for the last four years. Importantly, these increases fly in the face of directives from the Obama Administration that independent agencies should contain costs and were approved despite a decrease in the number of credit unions and improving health of the credit union system.

The National Credit Union Administration's (NCUA) 6.1% budget increase is also contrary to the action taken by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) this week to reduce its 2013 budget by 18.2% and a net reduction of 687 positions. The FDIC said it was taking steps to reduce its budget in light of the improving health of the banking system and other factors. FDIC’s budget is $2.68 billion and includes authorization for 8,026 positions in 2013. NCUA’s budget is $251 million and includes 1,261.5 positions for 2013.

NCUA has also provided more information on its web page on the agency’s Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives (OSCUI). Below are links to information on that page: